Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Full action bed or just tang and lug?

...any advantages to a full action bedding? What are the pro's and con's?

[quote=gsganzer]...any advantages to a full action bedding? What are the pro's and con's?[/


I'm sure others will differ, but when it's me doing my own rifles, they get the front & back treatment, and shoot perfectly fine.

I have a new Ruger M77 .300 Win Mag, that I'm planning to float and bed. I've done one before following Northern Dave's tips in the Hunting Rifle forum and it came out great. It was done to a M77 25-06 and I bedded the rear tang, front recoil lug and the first 1.5 inches of the chamber area, just as Dave's tutorial depicted. The gun shoots great and the job went without a hitch.

Now that I'm feeling cocky with my new skills, I'm wondering if there are any advantages to a full action bedding? What are the pro's and con's?

Same here. Why make potential trouble for yourself by making more contact points than necessary.

Like the others have said - no true benefit to a full receiver bed.. Tang and lug + 1-1.5" of barrel will 99.9 times outta a hundred do very well..

Metal shim under the tang like I described may be better than bedding the tang, it sure feels like a pillar when you go to tighten it down.

I had a smith who I respect, recently tell me to free float the barrel all the way to the receiver, not to do the 1 1/2" or so bedding on the barrel shank. He mentioned something about harmonic vibrations being more even without the shank being bedded.

What's you're thinking on bed the shank or full float the barrel?

DF

I usually full length bed the whole darn thing, just for grins.

On the rugers you should bed the recoil lug at least and 1"-1 1/2" of the barrel.

Last week, I worked with a 77 after bedding and noticed when I was tightening down the tang screw that it still felt spongy after just a skim coat bed. So, I put a pillar in the rear, and the gun went to shooting it's best.

I remembered that I had a friend in the 80's that would trace the tang and cut a piece of 0.020 metal, placing it under the ruger tang, and file it to were it fit perfectly in the stock, no bedding. When you tightened down the tang screw, it felt as if it was pillar bedded, I found it hard to believe. Browning currently puts a piece of metal underneath the tang on their A bolt rifles.

I met another fellow at the rifle range that was carving up one of his credit cards placing it underneath the tang and underneath the action area. As he tightened up the stock screws, he stood the rifle up on it's butt and pulled down on the barrel, pushing the recoil lug up against the stock as much as possible. He shot very well with this arrangement with no bedding and what he did was lift the action up off of the wood and freefloat the areas between the tang and recoil lug. His groups were not benchrest quality, but sure improved the groups over what the rifle had been shooting.

In all of these Rugers, do not over tighten the center screw or you will be pulling the center of the action down creating stress on the action. I just tighten my center screws just fingernail tight and have some that I have removed the center screw entirely.

Also, the magazine box should free float between the floor plate and the action, or the mag box will be pushing up on the center of the action thowing the action out of "bed". You should be able to drop the floor plate, and while placing your index finger on the inside of the magazine box, the mag box should be able to wiggle freely. A little filing or work with a dremel will fix the magazine binding in just a couple of minutes.

Hope this helps